Affordable Housing Proposed for Long-Empty Lot at Decatur and Broadway in Ocean Hill

It seems the Ocean Hill development on the corner of Broadway and Decatur we wrote about Monday is actually part of a much bigger project taking place along Broadway on both sides of Decatur. Two six-story buildings will contain 134 units of supportive and low-income housing as well as retail space. The building at 1696-1712 Broadway will go into a city-owned site that has been an empty lot for decades, pictured above. The one at 1674-1684 Broadway, as previously reported, will go up where Henry Distributors has been selling hardware and building materials since 1970.

As it turns out, owner Stan Henry is actually a partner in the development, along with Alembic Community Development. Among other things, he will help out the project with his extensive local contacts in the building trades. We hope that’s good news for his many long-time employees who live in the area. Perhaps Henry Distributors plans to resume operations in the building’s retail space after construction has finished.

The project will cost $53,000,000 and the architect is Peter Woll. The development will be called The Henry Apartments, presumably after Stan Henry.

The office of the Brooklyn Borough President held a public hearing on the project on April 8. An email to the office was not returned, so we don’t know the outcome. On Tuesday, a subcommittee of the City Council voted to approve it. A construction permit has already been filed for the building at 1674-1684 Broadway.

After years of virtually no private development in this area, now almost every vacant lot in the vicinity has a building going up on it. We live on this block and are pleased with the plans since it will help residents — and the building design is likely to be better than a market rate condo development. We just hope they make an effort to soundproof the building, since it will be right up against the very loud elevated train tracks.